Our Cell
by Ari-the-Writer
Summary: Two sides, one board... In this chess game, who wins?


_A.N. This is for the Firefly. I do not own anything-Marvel is too beautiful to be mine._

"We have to take you in Natasha." There was a tone of great apology to Steve's tone, his eyes glimmering with a tinge of shame. It was obvious that he did not want to do what he was being ordered to do.

"I still say she could just stay with me-I love redheads and I dare the government to parade into Stark industries. We make everything they use," Tony quipped, very blase about the entire affair. "We know she didn't do it."

"It doesn't matter what we know." Sorrowful eyes flickered to the redhead. "Natasha, we'll find a way. I promise."

Looking from the boy scout, the playboy, and finally to the human side of the green rage monster, she oddly found the most comfort in him. "Take me in boys-Not like I have anywhere else to go, anyway," she added bitterly.

x~x~x

"You've got to be joking." Golden eyes narrowed at the guards and the redhead that came towards her cell. "What did you do to get put in here with me?" There was almost an amusement to her when she realized the enhanced human, the Avenger would be stuck with her, the mutant, the right hand to Magneto himself. She glared at the guard when the cuffs she wore began to electrocute her, paralyzing her as they turned the key.

Ignoring her, the now disgraced spy went into the cell as it was opened, sitting on the bench across from the mutant.

"You ladies play nice. I will reassign you if necessary, Ms. Romanoff. Sorry, but we're in short supply on cells equipped for one of your skills." Awkward, the guard tipped his hat to the Avenger and lead his men away.

As soon as the cell was closed, the blue skinned woman was able to move. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Tell me, did they get scared when they realized you were above them?" Of course, she didn't particularly respect those 'enhanced' humans as much as she did a mutant, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before humans turned against even their own projects.

Empty green eyes met gold without an ounce of fear or even anger. She knew it was only a matter of time before her name was clear. She had not been working for the former Soviet Union for a very long time. And even if they didn't clear her, she had options. She could escape. A little more red by her letterhead wouldn't bother her. Much.

"Such a pretty face. I bet they'll all be worried for you." Her tone was almost a sneer as she took the other woman's form.

x~x~x

"Should you really be keeping these two together? I mean honestly, your job is to keep criminals secure and Ms. Romanoff hardly qualifies as a real criminal. Now anyway." The billionaire prodded the head guard, pompous as always.

"With all due respect Mr. Stark, I am well aware of the situation and you would do well to respect my authority while in my facility." His temper was rising, but he knew he had to be careful about this. "These two ladies have not even had an argument. Now, she's not even supposed to have visitors, but for you, five minutes. Remember you don't have the suit in here."

When the guard turned away, Tony began to mouth his words mockingly, grinning when the door shut, leaving him and the cellbound ladies. "Well, he's an asshole. And how does he know I don't have weapons under my clothes?" He winked at Mystique and glanced at her curiously. "I wonder... That mutation, it's very interesting. Do all the parts work when you change? Or is it just a strict look?"

"Let me go, and I'll show you," the blue woman mocked, walking close as the cuffs around her wrist would allow.

"Sorry, I can only use my influence to spring one gorgeous master criminal." Looking to his teammate, he became a little more serious. "Someone is going to a lot of trouble to frame you. We've got Hawkeye digging into your domestic enemies."

"So no actual change." Cursing in quiet Russian, the redhead stepped closer to the bars, not restrained by the same cuffs as Mystique as she had not been labeled as a hostile prisoner. "So why are you here?"

"I'm wounded-Do you really think I _must_ have a motive to come see my second favorite redhead?" he asked in an accusing tone, resting his hand over his heart.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just really miss you all." Her eyes were downcast, her manner becoming almost timid. "Perhaps you could get me a new cell at least..." Then she could break herself out and prove her innocence on her own.

"We're trying. Really." He wished he could reach out and touch her. "I'll see what I can do about the cell. Maybe Fury can get you a private cell."

"Time is up!" a guard shouted from down the hall.

"I'll see you, Natasha." Looking deeply annoyed, the industry tycoon turned and walked briskly away.

Emotion slipped from her features at his exit. She turned back to the golden eyed creature, and took her standard spot on the bench.

"Emotional manipulation. I forgot that was one of your skills." Approaching with the movements of a predator, crouched on the edge of the bench, staring at her. "So tell me... Why do you not try to manipulate me? Make me see things your way, hm?"

"Engaging you would be a fruitless venture." Her reply was clipped as she peered at her.

"You know why? Because I believe in what I'm here for. I believe that we are not the disease, but the cure. We are the strong and they are the weak-You are evidence of that, the attempt to make humans something more through artificial means. Yet they shun me, a product of evolution," the blue woman snarled, leaning forward to crowd the other female's space.

Turning slowly, green eyes classed with yellow. "You are forgetting-I'm here because I was framed. You're here because you kill people."

"I'm a soldier in a war they fight in the dark, outside the scrutiny of those too cowardly to admit the fight even exists. Surely you understand being a soldier," she sneered, staring down at her as if she were looking upon something lower than herself.

"The difference between you and I is immense. I am a soldier, yes. You are a murderer and you feel nothing for your crimes." Catching the other woman's fist, she was unsurprised by her aggression. "Did I hit a nerve?"

And then they were tumbling, fighting viciously. Mystique morphed into a massive man, slamming a fist down and crumbling the floor where Natasha's head had been. The Avenger wrapped her leg around her opponent's and yanked downwards, rolling them and slamming her forearm down into her opponent's throat.

With a gasp, the shifter shrank beneath her, to a child, the size cancelling out the woman's hold as she rolled away and came back to her feet as Hawkeye.

Smirking at her assumption, the shorter woman swept the transformed figure of her feet, lunging forward without mercy. The other female was foolish if she thought wearing another's face could really sway her.

Yet as suddenly as the fight started, it ended, electricity coursing through the mutant even as the Avenger was sprayed with a powerful jet of water to knock her to the side. "Behave ladies. I'll fit you with your own cuffs if I have to Ms. Romanoff."

x~x~x

As the cellblock was cloaked in darkness, yellow eyes stared at the other woman curiously. She almost never seemed to sleep. Sometimes when she was almost certain she was sleeping, she would move and meet a pair of emotionless green eyes.

Since their little spat, they had not tried to communicate in any way. They were not talking, but they were not fighting either. So it was peaceful. And boring. Time was beginning to slip. It was a popular technique to disorient, keeping the lights on and then turning them off after days, then keeping to a normal daylight cycle for a few days only to change it again. It kept the prisoners from knowing truly how long they had been there.

Slowly, knowing that the Avenger could track her even in the dark, the mutant joined her on the bench. She knew now that the woman would not bow to mockery or her ideology. "Do you really think they accept you? You were made as a weapon for them to use. Now, you are framed, vilified. Will you just sit idly by and wait for them to condemn you the same way they have me?"

"I don't know how to rephrase this so you understand, so I'll keep it simple. I'm not like you." Irked by the attempt to manipulate her, she turned, knowing the mutant could see her. "I understand that you feel victimized by the world, but it is your actions that condemn you... Raven."

Bristling at the use of that name, the mutant narrowed her eyes. "I am fighting to defend mutant kind-I'm fighting to defend even you, a pawn to their wars." Deciding on a gentler approach, she touched the other woman's shoulder. "You say you aren't like me, yet we are painfully so. You are a victim to them as much as I am. They use you, fear you and leave you to take the fall when they find no more use. The only difference is I chose the side that would benefit me. You were made this way. I was born to it, and yet you are more a prisoner than I could ever be."

"You want me on your side, so badly... I wonder, have you given up on your own people getting you out?" Natasha asked, voice deadly soft.

x~x~x

Beaming ear to ear, the first Avenger came down the hall. "Natasha, we've found him. The guy who framed you. They're questioning him right now, and you should be out in just a few hours!" His happiness was palpable, his sense of justice satisfied that his teammate would be vindicated.

Quirking a slight smile at the blond male, the femme fatale of the team nodded her thanks. "Who was it?" She was curious about who would have done this.

Frowning a bit, Steve looked a little perplexed. "That's the strange thing. It was just this low level intel guy. He did it, but even he doesn't seem to know why. We think that someone got into his head and manipulated him into doing it somehow. That's why they're still interrogating." He brightened a bit though. "Fury is just handling your records and we'll be here it get you soon."

Ignored, Mystique was deeply irked when the male gave her cellmate well wishes and left. "So... They still have a use for you."

"Maybe your team has moved on," the green eyed woman quipped, not at all fazed by the implication. "You're pathetic, you know that? Clinging to ideas of grandeur, when you could have a life beyond this 'war', if only you would see reality." It was a fight, to gain acceptance, yet she never would the way she chose.

"And what would you suggest? I become a puppet? Work on a team like yours defending those who would see me dead?" the blue woman snarled, moving into the shorter woman's personal space.

Pinning the mutant back against the wall, she let her lips hover over her ear, not touching, yet the position forcing an intimacy between them. "I suggest you stop having temper tantrums, that you stop being used by fear mongers who would send their people to jail to further an agenda. I have had a feeling since this happened... Who would frame me? Who would then have me placed within the same cell as a criminal who should by all means be confined to herself? You think humankind is harsh? What about someone who would have their own right hand placed in lockdown, just to further an agenda? You think Magneto cares about you? He just cares about what you can do for him."

As the other female released her, the mutant frowned. She had been down here longer than necessary... And they had in fact been tracking a mutant with the capacity to control the minds of others when she had been captured. There had never once been an attempt to free her, yet her metal prison should have been easily handled by Magneto.

Sitting in her usual spot, the Avenger rolled her neck. "There's a lot of red in my past. Everything I do is to try and wipe it clean. What about you? Even if you win this 'war' you go on about, will it be worth it? Knowing you killed, knowing you were used, a pawn in something that was always operated above your head, despite your loyalty?"

Brooding silence descended then, and it remained, even when the guards came to release her cellmate.

"Enjoy your cell," Natasha grunted as she moved towards the bars.

"You mean our cell," Mystique replied coolly.

An understanding passed then. They were at an impasse, a stalemate. Neither one had bested the other, and it was unlikely they ever would. Somehow, their brief exchanges and fights had become a part of the chess game they both insulted each other with. There was something to be said though. In the game they'd played, there was a respect developed.

x~x~x

"Any luck?" Fury asked, eying his favorite spy. As soon as she had gone in, he had instructed her to try and convert the mutant, bend her to their side or at least give up some information.

"She is sick of being used." Green eyes turned away, a thoughtful look overcoming her features. "I'll know if it was a success soon." Magneto had been tipped off, by now, she was certain. If the blue woman went with him, it was a pointless exercise. If not... Well, they'd have a new addition perhaps.


End file.
